Door hinge



July 17, 1956 H. J. TROCHE ET AL DOOR HINGE Original Filed Jan. 30, 1948 INVENTORS HERMAN J TROGHE 8| ARD HOLAN $04 M ATTORNE By JAMES HOW United States Patent DOOR HINGE Herman I. Troche, Fairview Park, and James Howard Holan, Rocky River, Ohio, assignors to J. H. Holan Corporation, Cleveland, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Original application January 30,1948, Serial No. 5,244, now Patent No. 2,619,204, dated November 25, 1952. Divided and this application November 20, 1952, Serial No. 321,552

1 Claim. (CL. 16-128) The invention relates to hinges, andparticularly to devices of this character in which the complementary relatively movable hinge parts are covered and protected.

The invention is shown, in; theaccompanying drawing, and described in the following description, as applied to a vehicle body. The invention is particularly adaptable for use on the doors of public utility and other truck bodies subject to out-of-doors weather conditions. and to dirty and'gritty' road conditions; For use in truck bodies serving in the installation and maintenance of utility equipment the continuous type and other standard types of door hinges have been found unsatisfactory because of leakage and rusting. It is the purpose of the instant invention to provide a hinge structure in which these objections are obviated.

The invention is directed to subject matter divided out oi our application for U. S. Letters Patent Serial No. 5,244, filed January 30, 1948, titled Sealing Means for the Hinge Edge of a Door, Patent No. 2,619,204, issued November 25, 1952.

The annexed drawing and the following description set forth in detail certain means illustrating our improvements in a door hinge having covered relatively movable bearing and journal surfaces, such drawing and description illustrating, however, only one assembly in which the principle of the invention may be incorporated.

In said annexed drawing:

Figure 1 is an outside elevation of a door to which the invention is applied, a fragmentary surrounding portion of the vehicle body being also shown;

Figure 2 is a broken outside elevation of the hinge edge of the door and the adjacent vehicle body portion, parts of the door adjacent the hinges being broken away, this view being upon a greatly enlarged scale;

Figure 3 is a vertical transverse section, taken in the plane indicated by the line 3-3, Figure 2; and

Figure 4 is a longitudinal horizontal section, taken in the plane indicated by the line 44, Figure 2.

Referring to the annexed drawing in which the same parts are indicated by the same respective numbers in the several views, a vehicle body 1 is provided with a closure such as the door 2 which, in the form of door shown for purposes of illustration, is a box-like formation having the inner panel 3 and the outer panel 4, Figure 4. A part of the body 1 is an interiorly-projecting door frame 1 clearly shown in Figures 3 and 4. The door is mounted within this frame 1 and is materially spaced therefrom on the hinge edge as clearly appears in Figure 4.

The instant hinge invention is illustrated by a showing of hinge structure serving for the opening and closing movements of the door 2, in the said door frame 1 The weight of the door 2 provides a substantial part of the advantages of the improved hinge structure.

The claims of the instant application are limited to a hinge structure which provides a covering for the complementary bearing and journal surfaces of the hinge parts, and two such hinges are shown in Figure 2. The hinges 19 are vertically and axially aligned and can be used Patented July 17', 1956 ice 2v interchangeably, although only one, the lower one, is held in position by the weight of the door so as to provide the full coverage and protection of the relatively movable bearing and journal surfaces. When non-continuous hinges are used, at least two are necessary for proper opening andclosing movements of the door but, in utility body operation such as here described, with a body and door structure also here described, only the lower hinge requires the protection herein before mentioned. The upper hinge is self-clearing and; also is not subject to untoward conditions to the same degree as the lower hinge. As stated, however, both hinge structures are identical so they can be used interchangeably.

First describing the general structure of the door 2 and the surrounding body 1 with which the improved hinge structure is embodied, it will be noted that the door 2 has a peripheral flange on the hinge edge, which flange overlaps an adjacent outer body panel flange, when the door is closed, so as to provide weather-tight self-sealing means with the body 1. In the form of' the invention shown in the accompanying drawings, this door lapping flange is-formedon theinner door panel 3, this inner door panel 3 having atransverse outwardly-extended side member 5 and a longitudinal peripheral lapping flange 6 of a length suflicient to interiorly overlap an adjacent outer body panel 7. The outer panel 4 has a peripheral flange portion 4 Figure 4, of sufficient extent to lie flush with the greater part of the inner panel flange 6, the flange portion 4 extending, in fact, to a transverse plane slightly spaced from the transverse plane of the edge of the body panel '7 so that there is created a narrow opening 8 between this edge of the body panel 7 and the adjacent edge of the door panel flange portion 4 Furthermore, the flange 6 is laterally inwardly offset from the plane of the flange portion 4 to provide an inner lapping marginal flange portion 6 Figure 4, which is biased toward the body panel 7 so that, in the closed condition of the door shown in full lines in Figure 4, the marginal portion 6 ol the flange 6 closely engages the adjacent inner face portion of the body panel 7 to form a Weather-tight joint. The marginal portion 6 is formed of flexible material which additionally insures a close Weather-tight lapping thereof with the body panel 7. The narrow opening 8 provides clearance for the swinging movements of the outer door panel flange portion 4 as will be apparent from an inspection of the opened and closed positions of the door shown on Figure 4.

The flange 6 of the inner door panel 3 and the flange portion 4 of the outer panel 4 lap the respective adjacent upper and lower vehicle body portions but are cut away at their upper and lower edge portions, respectively, so as to permit the opening and closing movements of the lapping panel flange portion 6 as clearly appears in Figures 1 and 2.

As stated, upper and lower hinges 10, Figures 1 and 2, are utilized and are not only of similar formation but are similarly assembled except that they are in reversed positions. These hinges 10 have vertical strap-like door bracket parts 11 and longitudinal strap-like body bracket parts 12 bolted to the adjacent respectively upper and lower vehicle body members by means of base portions 14 thereof.

The brackets 11 are secured to the door 2, and adjacent the edge thereof, welded thereto in the form of assembly shown, and have relatively right angular longitudinallyextended strap-like hinge parts 11 to which are secured and through which are passed vertical hinge pins 13 of circular cross-section. The manner of securing the hinge parts ll and the hinge pins 13 shown in the accompanying drawings consists in passing the hinge pins 13 through the hinge portions 11 so as to cause a major portion of the length of the hinge pins 13 to extend below (or above) the hinge portions 11 and then welding the inner ends of the hinge pins 13 to the upper and lower faces of the respective hinge portions 11 so that the exposed ends of the pins 13 are sealed. The extended portions of the pins 13 provide journal surfaces 16 cooperating with hearing surfaces 17 formed in vertically-extended socketed angular portions 15 of the body bracket parts 12. In the lower hinge 10 the upper surface 18 of the portion 15 of the body bracket 12 lies closely adjacent the lower surface 19 of the portion 11 of the door bracket 11. In the upper hinge 10 the relative positions of the several surfaces are reversed and the surfaces 18 and 19 are slightly spaced apart.

In the lower hinge 10 the adjacent surfaces 19 and 18 of the hinge part 11 of the door bracket 11 and the hinge part 15 of the body bracket 12 are held in close flush relation by the weight of the door 2 and thus completely cover the relatively movable journal and bearing surfaces 16 and 17 of this lower hinge 10 and yet permit easy opening and closing movements of the door.

What we claim is:

For use with the door of a truck body having an upper and lower horizontal supporting wall, door hinges including upper and lower door brackets, each door bracket comprising a structurally integral member with strap-like flat portions forming substantially a right angle, one of said flat portions of each door bracket being secured to the door and adjacent an edge thereo, and the other extending parallel to a supporting body wall, a pin for each parallelly extending portion, each said pin having its head welded to one face of said last mentioned portion, passing therethrough, with the free end of each pin extending beyond an opposed face of said parallelly-extending portion toward a supporting wall, said door hinges further including upper and lower wall brackets each carried by a supporting body wall adjacent an extending pin end, each of said wall brackets comprising a flat strap-like portion secured to a supporting body wall and a rightangularly disposed socket portion having a bearing face disposed toward said opposed face of the parallel portion of a door bracket, the free end of each pin providing a journal surface extended into the socket portion of a wall bracket, the weight of the door causing the opposed face of the lower door bracket to be in juxtaposed abutting relatively slidable relationship with the bearing face of said lower wall bracket.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 411,152 Kuhn Sept. 17, 1889 651,145 Parker June 5, 1900 711,785 Parker Oct. 21, 1902 1,922,365 Heasley Aug. 15, 1933 

